I have just finished
reading the Book of Ezekiel and the last few chapters about the Temple has caught
my attention.
For years and years I have being
believing a lie from the enemy of God. Two and a half years ago this lie was
exposed when I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit in church. You might want
to sit down to read the next few lines. During our church meeting I was taken
up (in spirit) into the clouds and met the Holy Spirit. Now my knowledge and
awareness of the Holy Spirit has been minimal all these years, yet when I was
taken into this encounter I knew instantly it was the Holy Spirit because I had
just cried out “Spirit of Life I love you” and then I was taken (in spirit)
into this encounter, awesome yes, but what’s better is today it’s more real
than ever, as I have come to know the Holy Spirit much better since then. The
fact that the Holy Spirit is a person, loves me (Romans 15:30), and desires
fellowship with me (2 Corinthians 13:14) which I never knew has completely
transformed my life.
Since this encounter the word
“Presence” has been burning within me. It’s now captivating me, the Presence of
God. God present with me. I have come to know the Presence of God - the Holy
Spirit walking with me. I have been learning how to enter into His Presence,
how easy it is to do so and I am learning more as I step in to the Holy Spirit
day by day and I actually mean day by day. I have been reluctant to speak
because so much has been changing, my beliefs have been turned up-side down and
this has not been easy to adjust too. Answers to questions I asked did not
satisfy me but only served to throw me onto the Holy Spirit for greater understanding.
As I read God’s word and began searching out these things I have been amazed by
what God has been teaching me. Sometimes I might not fully grasp what the bible
is saying or indeed what the Holy Spirit might say, but as I continue to battle
for insight, Holy Spirit just draws me
in and fills my heart and reveals Himself as I seek. At times I come to a
certain position on an issue only for God to challenge that position soon
afterwards, it’s just so rewarding and encouraging, the process mouth-watering
excitement.
In January this year a prophetic
word was shared by Lionel in church along these lines “God has moved by grace
and favour amongst us, but a day is coming of Presence and Power”. This word
has not left me, it’s an amazing promise for us to take hold of, but we need to
take hold of it.
We all know what squatting rights
means (if a dwelling is empty and one gets in and takes up residence,
eventually they receive rights). Now if the Holy Spirit were to speak those
words to you, what would you think? For me it clicked instantly and maybe so
because of what I experienced since becoming a believer. Being a Christian if your
temple:
Is unoccupied then we may have
given squatting rights to Gods enemy. You may argue that if you are a christian
your temple is not unoccupied. I believe when you become a christian you receive
the Holy Spirit into your inner person your spirit and not into your whole
body. This partly explains why as a new christian you can struggle with sin in your
body or indeed in your soul, indeed Paul talks of struggling with sin in the
book of Romans. You can be a Christian and have the love of God and peace of
God within your spirit but yet
emotionally you can desperately lack peace. This point has caused much
debate which I don’t have time for here, I just wish to let you know my stand on
this point. Our bodies (temples) when baptised with the Holy Spirit are filled
with the Holy Spirit and therefore fully occupied. This is a daily process as
we are commanded to be filled over and over again. Now why be filled again if
we are already filled, why be filled again if you were filled when you became a
christian and why were so many in the book of acts baptised in the Holy Spirit
when they were already christians. How come everyone baptised with the Holy
Spirit in the book of acts can give you a date and time when they received this
second baptism. You owe it to yourself to search out the answer to this
question.
Over the last two years I have
become increasingly aware of the amount of pollution we tolerate in the name of
entertainment (books, television viewing etc some of these items glorify the
occult, death, crime etc). Please understand I am not judging here, I have come
to learn that the Holy Spirit just like a dove takes instant flight at the sign
of danger or trouble. When you become a christian your spirit is sealed with
the Holy Spirit (Eph1:13). Now it’s important to grasp a seal from God is
indeed a seal, when the Holy Spirit takes flight, it’s the presence of God that
takes flight. The Holy Spirit remains sealed in your spirit, you do not become
a non-Christian.
Matthew 12:43-45 we read about the man where
an evil spirit came out of him:
"When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places
seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I
left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in
order”
The spirit then returns:
“And the final condition of that man is worse than the
first”.
If the house (temple) is unoccupied we
give evil spirits squatting rights and they will oppress us to stop the Holy
Spirit being manifest in our being (Believe me I know of this personally – I believed
and came into agreement with lies of the enemy and allowed his lies destroy me
for years). We were designed by God to display his glory, designed by God to
carry the full measure of His Spirit, this is our calling. God gives us the
opportunity to fulfill our destiny, he does not force it on us, the choice is
ours.
Many become Christians, but much less
fulfill their calling or destiny. Many remain drinking milk as Paul says rather
than eating meat; many fail to grow – Why? I don’t have your answer but I do
mine. I became a Christian, great, but I stayed at the cross. I lived
present-past (the cross 2000 years ago saved me), I clung to history and stayed
at the cross (marvelous history though).
Today I live present-future (the cross
saved me to live out of fullness of God (Presence) and change the future, one
of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to bring the Kingdom of God on the earth). When
I became a Christian Jesus came into my spirit (inner man) but I did not
furnish my house, I emptied my house as Jesus cleaned it up but I did not fill
it with the Spirit of God. God never wanted to be confined to just my spirit
like in the Old Testament when he was confined to the Holy of Holies in the
Temple. When Jesus died the veil was torn and the Spirit of God was no longer
confined in the Holy of Holies. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is similar, the
Spirit of God falls on our whole being so we can then shine like Moses did and
radiate Gods glory.
In Ezekiel 44 we continue reading about
Ezekiel’s vision and take up the vision at the outer gate to the sanctuary.
Verse 2 "This gate is
to remain shut". It must not be opened; no one may enter through it. It is
to remain shut because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered through it”.
When the Lord enters your temple we are
told to shut the door and keep it shut, if the door is shut can squatters get
in? When God comes into our body (temple) our spirit is filled with His glory.
Ezekiel in the vision was told in three different ways to pay careful
attention. Why? I would imagine the answer is ‘This is a really important point’.
Here is the bit that’s important.
5 “Give attention to the
entrance of the temple and all the exits of the sanctuary”.
If we watch what comes in and what goes
out we learn much about the health of the temple (our life in Christ). If as
commanded we keep the entrance shut what exits should give glory to God. The
fact that Ezekiel was told to make sure the entrance remained closed means it
is possible to open it and shut it as you so wish. Today we are given the
choice to have our entrance opened or closed, but God tell us to keep it
closed. Likewise we are told to keep being filled with the Holy Spirit, but
just because we are told to do it does not meant we do, the choice is yours.
Did you ever watch what leaves your temple, your words, actions, attitudes and
testimony or indeed lack of these, if these items are not good, God is inviting
you to come to him for a make-over.
We read in verse 7:
“In addition to all your other
detestable practices, you brought foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh
into my sanctuary, desecrating my temple”
What’s alarming to me here is though the
Levites (the tribe set apart for service in the temple and for priesthood) did
these things and had the entrance of the sanctuary open God left them in charge
of the temple, but God only allowed them serve people, catch that – only served
people.
Now the priests (verses 15-16) who
faithfully carried out the duties when Israel went astray from God
"are to come near to
minister before me. They alone are to enter my sanctuary; they alone are to
come near my table to minister before me and perform my service”.
Note the difference, these ones get to
minister unto God. These get to minister in His presence. This I know is the
desire of each one of us who are true Christians (remember in New Testament
times all Christians are priests). This type of service to God comes at a
price, the price once you accept that Jesus paid the ultimate price on the
cross for you is that you surrender to Christ which is impossible to do unless
you are filled with the Spirit. You can not surrender without being filled (you
can’t empty your temple without filling it else you will leave your entrance
open and empty or lacking, if it’s not full / furnished it is open to other
influences). A condition of being filled is to have clean hands and a pure
heart else the Holy Spirit will not be at rest and remain. Unless you are
hungry you won’t eat, without eating you become less and it’s also true in the
spiritual realm, without eating you simply will not grow.
This vision of Ezekiel has so much truth
for you and me (the temple of the Holy Spirit) today. It’s a great picture or
comparison of religion and a faith built on presence, if we follow our idols
(anything that takes a place before God in our life – the most obvious idol is the
fear of man and thus relegating God in our life, or another putting materialism
before God) we will miss out on His presence. If you are not in the Holy Spirit,
I believe you are in religion, you may
be a Christian but still in the mould of religion and outside of presence and
this is my belief of what Ezekiel was seeing.
Ezekiel 47 is a continuation of
Ezekiel’s great vision but few of us see this chapter as an extension to what
has gone before it, they are linked. This chapter shows you the what’s possible
for every Christian, to live in the Presence or live in religion. The vision is
- The river flowing from the temple. The river being symbolic of the Holy
Spirit flowing out from the temple into the world. Our call is to be a blessing
to the nations, when we flow with the river, we are a blessing to the nations.
Without effort we produce fruit and healing in the nation.
This is what we know
of this vision. Most if not all of us miss what verse 11 speaks of:
"But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for
salt".
If we do not touch the river we will remain unfruitful and
not bring forth life. Without the river (Holy Spirit) even though you may be a Christian
there is no offspring, new life or fruit, you are living in religion. Believe
me when I say for years I gave Satan’s crew squatting rights in my life, but in
recent years the Holy Spirit has led me into that which Lionel spoke of in
January, Presence.
In church we have just completed during
the summer an excellent teaching series predominantly on the gifts of the Holy
Spirit. Can I challenge you to listen again to Fergus on Trinity Radio (or on iTunes) 17th
June 2012 and Andy 24th June 2012 and Fergus again on the 2nd
September 2012.
In their messages they spoke of the Holy Spirit and how
important, no, essential the Holy Spirit is for us. Can I go further than that?
If you received this as teaching and just teaching you are little different
than the Pharisees that learned the scriptures but refused to come into
encounter. God’s word is only an invitation to an encounter with God. Without
encounter, without the Holy Spirit the Bible is just a book. Please as you listen, act upon the invitation.
When Moses saw the burning bush (Exodus 3), he “thought”..., then he acted and
“went over”. It was only when he went over that God spoke to him. Can I tell
you this is a “burning bush” moment right now, you can just pass comment on my
blog and move on or “step in” and consider my words or those of Fergus and Andy.
I challenge you to camp here until you have an encounter with God.
Ask God to help you and teach you, ask
God to release His Holy Spirit and invite Jesus to baptise you with the Holy Spirit and then welcome the Holy Spirit and ask Him
to teach you (Ask our church leaders to lay hands on you to receive the Baptism
in the Holy Spirit).In the book of Acts, everyone who was baptized with the
Holy Spirit can point to a date, a time in history when this amazing promise of
God was received by them…when did you receive this same promise. I am sorry for
being so blunt here, but I promise you if you seek this promise and surrender
to Him you will receive it.
The Holy Spirit, He and He only will
know and tell you what needs changing and how to make those changes, He is the
one that leads us into ALL TRUTH. I could keep going on but I know the Holy
Spirit holds your solution. Be blessed on this your amazing treasure hunt. The
Holy Spirit will unearth for you all your greatest dreams, wishes, wants and
desires. He and He only knows what is best for
you and He never gets it wrong.
Read
Rogers words in the blog posted on 10th September. I encourage you to want like Roger. What Roger speaks about is the
most precious gift, The gift of the Holy Spirit, the actual person of the Holy
Spirit. This is PRESENCE. Allow Fergus and Andy’s words transform your life. Believe
me it’s too easy to miss what’s on offer here. Grasp your “burning bush”
moment, just grasp it.
If
you are hungry – just eat.
Declan D.
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